talking with Matt and Christina that I remembered what my dear brother Daniel Faiella told me, "If a guy has the guts to ask a girl out, she should at least give it a whirl out of respect for his guts." (Okay, maybe that's not a direct quote, but you get the point.) And I remembered my friend Derek Campbell, who liked me in college, who I backed away from, and then ended up liking him a few years later; but for him, that ship had sailed. I didn't want that to happen again; I wanted to learn from my mistake. But, it was hard and it was scary! I wanted to give Jason a shot, but it meant trusting God, because I knew that night in November 2008 that there would be a December 27 2009 with Jason, and I wasn't ready--he wasn't my dream guy. He wasn't my prince Charming. I knew he could be, and I knew he would be, but I wasn't ready to lay down my selfish ambitions and desires and false ideas of what Mr Perfect really looks like. But, I knew I had to--it was obvious. I knew it was what the Lord had for me, and that He could

transform me, and that it was His plan. So, I called Jason up on the following evening, and told him I was rethinking my previous statement. And then promptly hung up the phone. Haha. Anyway, I talked with Rachel--my dear friend and sister! She's so wise. She was pulling for Jason, but remained objective for my sake. And I talked to my mom, who of course in her blunt way told me it was stupid to say no, and she didn't even know Jason! But, she knows God and has that special Mom relationship with God and so I'm sure He told her what was the right thing to say. And I talked more about it with Christina and Matt, and determined the things that I wasn't willing to sacrifice, things that were so important to me, that if Jason wasn't on the same page, then I wouldn't be able to go on that journey with him. And about two weeks after he asked me, we talked. And we talked. And it was good. And I told him I was ready to spend more time with him as a friend to see if I was willing to spend time with him as his girlfriend.